Outside of Time
by Element's Sole Protector
Summary: SPOILER SUMMARY! A tribute to Sieg Hart, who should not have died. Haru, Lucia and Elie -ahem, Resha- both appear.


Yeh've been warned. There's SPOILERS ahead. This is set a year or so in the "future".

*dramatic gasp* It's MY FIRST _Rave Master_ fic. I really should have done one of these while Sieg Hart was ALIVE. …But since he **_isn't_** anymore and I now _can't_, here I go preserving him!

I don't own Rave Master, Mashima-sensei does. He is the one who came up with the HUGE Resha-Elie plot twist. Genius, man.

I have discovered, in Elie's renaming, a new _pairing name_: Reshu!

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**Outside of Time**--a tribute to Sieg Hart, Time's sole master...

* * *

"I brought the flowers, Haru."

He glanced up--his gray eyes percieved an angel holding a bouquet out to him, her dark blonde hair blowing in the little wind. With a sigh, he stood to greet her.

"That's good, Elie--ah, Resha. Thanks."

She smiled sadly. "Elie never died that day I realized who I am, you know. Didn't you tell me I'd always be Elie to you?"

_I did, and I meant it_, Haru thought her way with the magic of their bond, and then spoke aloud again. "But I know that never seeing you for who you are as well--Resha--means that I'm denying a part of you. And I love you, my Elie-Resha. _Both_ sides."

Elie/Resha turned away to dry her suddenly-streaming eyes. Once well again, she thrust the bouquet at Haru, and he then sank back down into the earth--for he had hardly moved from Sieg Hart's self-chosen grave.

It looked the same, which pleasantly surprised him--time had not shifted or messed with what little of his remains was left. _Even in death_, he thought, _Time still allies with Sieg Hart. That lucky, grand old sorceror._

"Hey, Sieg."

Only the picking-up wind roared gently in response.

"Have you missed us? It's been a year, after all...a year since we put you to rest, or you put yourself..."

Sieg Hart's skull stared blankly at and through him. Staring at it for so long unnerved Haru--it sometimes frightened him to remember that just over a year ago this skull had had spiky blue hair, seemingly depthless eyes with an intriguing scar-like tattoo under the right one (or was it the left? Was he forgetting his loyal friend already?)--oh, and it had also been attached to a body.

No thanks to Lucia's grandfather, though, that body, or the remains of it, was who-knew-where.

As he watched, Resha bent down so that her warm, smooth forehead touched Sieg's dry, dusty one. She was smiling ruefully. Her hand patted his head in a sad, friendly way.

"All these years, Sieg... you kept my locket safe for me."

And Haru could see that he had: the golden necklace still hung around what was left of Sieg Hart's neck. Loyal, ever-protective Sieg had protected it with all that was left of him.

Resha began crying softly--she gripped Haru's shoulder and sobbed into it. He gave a morose sigh and petted her hair soothingly. Her shoulders shook as his eyes locked on the gold of the locket. Haru didn't need to cry--his grief had been shed over the nights they traveled back, when he'd had to retrace their steps over the past year in order to find his friend's resting place. With all of the crap that had happened lately, he was lucky to have found his way back to Sieg at all. He had the feeling that Rave's magic had once again helped its bearer and guided him back.

Resha stiffened with a low, throaty sound.

"Lucia's coming. Here. Now."

Make that 'crap that _was happening_'.

"We can't let him find Sieg--there's little left of him as it is. C'mon, let's go. You first--"

Resha gave him a familiar, long-suffering look.

"I'll be right behind you this time--and besides, he's tracking _you_, remember? Go--"

She raised her staff and vanished with a low roaring sound. Haru turned back to Sieg's skull--and now he actually felt one tear slide from his cheek to the desert sand.

"Gotta go, or Lucia will find you and do who-knows-what to what's left of you.... See you when it's quieter, Sieg."

He had to concentrate harder than usual on Rave to vanish, to spirit himself away from Lucia's ever-watchful eyes, from his coming-closer presence--hopefully he would pass over Haru's and Resha's old friend, so desperate would he be to get to them...

"Well, _hello_, Haru. A pleasant surprise to have finally caught up to you. What brings you out into _this_ empty old place..."

_Lucia!_

"...particularly without your lovely companion, Resha?"

Haru grimaced. "I'd enjoyed not seeing _you_ for three months."

"Perhaps because you remember that I can now kill you with a simple, idle thought?" Lucia's eyes sparkled darkly, and he patted the hilt of his sheathed sword. His voice became commanding, menacing. "Tell me where the Etherion girl is."

"You know you would kill me before that ever happened."

"I disagree."

Resha's locket started to glow ominously while still around Sieg Hart's neck--Haru felt himsef stiffen apprehensively. Lucia, luckily, did not notice--but only because he was charging.

_Fwooooooosh._

Time slowed down. Literally.

Haru's eyes took forever to widen--much, much longer than usual--first in confusion, then in understanding.

_No. Frigging. Way._

Lucia's features changed, too--from equal surprise to rage. Somehow he thought that _Haru_ was doing this. Wasn't **that** just laughable.

_Yeah, right. --But Sieg Hart _did_ give me this escape route from beyond, I know that--somehow--and so I'm definitely going to use it. Resha, here I come--thanks, Sieg._

Rave started to shine (and in normal time, too, proving Haru's theory), and he dissipated like mist.

_See you soon_.

_

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_

I LOOOOOOOOOOVE Sieg!!!!!! WHY DID HE HAVE TO DIE?!?!?!?!?!? (goes into sobbing spasms)

Kitsune-Arii: There, there, dear. It's okay. You barely even remember the volume number in which he died. It's not the _total_ end of the world. --Now, if _Axel_ dies...wait...

...Anyway. ...Maybe soon I'll write one where Sieg's actually still living. I'd like to investigate his relationships with certain people.

Why _is_ it that I write a LOT of stories about people who are already dead in canon?

As Haru says: See you soon.


End file.
